James iiibson



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES HIBSON, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT EN THE FRAMES OFTRAVELING-TRUNKS.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 4,438, dated April 4, 1846.

A To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES HIBsON, of the city and Slate of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of 'lraveling and other Trunks; and I do\hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making apart of this specification.

My improvement is con iined to the skeleton or frame-work of traveling and other trunks and to the mode of connecting thereto the exterior covering. Instead of constructing the ribs (which constitute the skeleton of such trunks) of wood or inetaLl use strips of whale-bone, which by its elasticity preserves the original shape of a trunk after the latter has been subjected to wet or accidental pressure. These strips, when bent t0 the required form, are secured to the iron lips of the trunk by having their ends inserted into sockets formed of sheet metal and riveted to the lips. The lips are united at one side by metallic or other hinges in the usual manner. To connect the outer or leather covering to the skeleton,

'I use small clamps, made ot' thin sheet metal,

bent so as to grasp the under or inner sides of the strips, and extending halt an inch or more` on each side to afford room for rivets, which pass through the covering and clamps and are clinched on the latter, the-number and size of the strips and clamps being proportioned to the purposes for which the trunks are designed.

In the annexed drawings, Figure lis a perspective View of the skeleton of an improved trunk. a aa u. represent the two iron rims or lips, turning, as usual, on hinges at b b. c c

c c c are sockets of sheet-brass, riveted at one end (and at uniform distances) to the lips. d d d d d are bent strips or ribs of whalebone, which constitute,with the iron lips. the skeleton or frame-Work of the trunk. Their ends are merely slipped into the sockets c c c c c, there being no necessity further to secure them by nails or rivets, which are apt to cause a subsequent splitting` of the ribs, an effect frequently produced in wooden ribs by the treatment which traveling-trunks are necessarily subjected to. For the same reason clamps, one of which is shown at Fig. 2, are introduced to avoid the necessity of passing the rivets through the ribs, as well as to secure more perfectly the exterior or leather covering to them.

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of one of they clamps, and Fig. 3 asection showing the inode of securing by their means the covering to the skeleton. The rivets are represented at r 1' and the edge of the leather covering at s s. The dark part, included between the leather and the clamp e e, shows the rib.

Fig. 4 exhibits two ot' the sockets and a portion ot one of the lips ct ct, Fig. l; also two whalebone ribs and the leather covering. The ends of the ribs are represented out of their sockets.

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The Whalebone ribs and the mode of combining them with the frame-work ofthe trunk.

JAMES HIBSON. VitneSSeS:

J AMES S'rRoUD, EDWD. JONES. 

